The present invention relates to an apparatus for introducing a tire blank into a tire heating press and/or for removing a tire therefrom. The apparatus includes two rotationally symmetrical tools whose diameter is larger than the inner diameter of the tire blank or tire and which are provided for vulcanization within the tire blank. Such a tire heating press is designed, for example, for vulcanizing a pneumatic motor vehicle tire having interior sealing faces; the tire heating press is provided with upper and lower undivided contour rings for vulcanizing a sealing face disposed on the interior of the tire bead.
Pneumatic vehicle tires, when mounted, engage with their two sealing faces the respective two sides of the wheel rim. To achieve a satisfactory seal, the sealing faces must have a defined shape and a sufficiently smooth surface.
Conventional rims each have a left and a right cylindrical contact surface, each provided with a lateral outer delimiting flange. The corresponding sealing faces on the tire are accordingly disposed at the outer face, that is, at the surface which, during the vulcanizing process, is necessarily gripped by the shaping members of a tire heating press.
In more up-to-date wheel and tire systems, the radial contact face of the rim has a hollow cylindrical configuration, that is, it has surfaces which are oriented radially inwardly relative to the rotation axis. On the exterior, the radial contact faces are each adjoined by a lateral delimiting flange. The sealing faces of the tire are correspondingly arranged along the interior of its two bead edges.
Tire heating presses for vulcanizing conventional tires include upper and lower tire shaping tools which surround the exterior surface of the tire blank during heating. Generally, the upper tire shaping tool can be moved away from the lower tire shaping tool by means of hydraulic cylinders. For introducing the tire blank, a charging device pivots the tire blank into the tire heating press, while the tire shaping tools are separated. During this procedure, the tire is being held at the interior of its upper bead by pivotal carrying jaws which are disposed at a pivotal holder and then the tire is taken over by spreadable holding bars provided at the upper shaping tool. Such an arrangement is disclosed in German patent document No. 3,603,076 to which corresponds U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,059.
Tire heating presses for pneumatic motor vehicle tires of up-to-date tire systems have, for forming the sealing faces in the interior of the tire, an upper and a lower undivided contour ring whose diameter is larger than the inner diameter of the tire blank, as disclosed in German patent document No. 3,802,777. Therefore, tire blanks cannot be introduced by means of conventional tire charging devices into tire heating presses equipped with such contour rings.